ChipTrades Privacy Policy

ChipTrades is currently operated as a pre-registration/free-launch project in the United Arab Emirates. No separate legal entity has been established for the platform at this stage. Members, their contacts and their counterparties may be located anywhere in the world.

Privacy questions and requests: sales@chiptrades.com.

We process the following categories of information:

• Registration information — name, business email address, job title, password credentials (stored in hashed form by our authentication provider), and account status.
• Company information — company name, country/region, website, and your role within your company.
• Stock listings — part numbers, manufacturers, quantities, date codes, pricing and any notes you choose to publish.
• RFQs (requests for quotation) — parts, quantities, target pricing, timescales and comments you submit.
• Anonymous RFQs — the same request content, published to other members without your identifying details.
• Matching activity — records of matches generated between listings, RFQs and shortage/high-runner lists, and your responses to them.
• Messages — the content of messages, quotes and negotiation history you exchange with other members through the platform.
• Technical and security information — IP address, device/browser information, timestamps, login and session records, and audit logs of key actions.
• Communication preferences — your Terms acceptance, Privacy Policy acknowledgement, marketing preferences and any opt-out you record.
• Cookies and similar technologies — see our Cookie Policy.

When you post an RFQ anonymously, or when our matching engine cross-matches your RFQ against member stock, we do not disclose your name, company, email address, phone number, country or region to other members. Suppliers see only the commercial content of the request (such as part number, quantity, target price and timescale).

ChipTrades retains the underlying identity internally for account administration, platform operation, security, abuse prevention and legal purposes. Your identity is disclosed to another member only where a workflow you initiate does so — for example when you choose to message a supplier directly, or when a future feature you opt into specifically allows disclosure.

Messaging is designed to work like ordinary business email. When you message another member, that member can see who you are and the contact/company details you choose to share. Do not send information through messaging that you are not permitted to disclose.

• To create, verify, approve and administer member accounts.
• To operate the forum: publishing listings, RFQs, matches and messages between members.
• To send transactional and service communications (see section 8).
• To keep the platform secure, prevent fraud, spam, scraping and misuse, and enforce our rules.
• To improve the platform and understand aggregate usage patterns.
• To send marketing communications where you have opted in or where otherwise permitted by applicable law.
• To comply with legal obligations and to establish, exercise or defend legal claims.

Where data protection law requires a lawful basis (for example the UK GDPR or EU GDPR), we rely on: performance of our agreement with you (providing the platform); our legitimate interests (platform security, abuse prevention, service improvement and B2B relationship management); your consent (for optional marketing where consent is required, and for any non-essential cookies); and compliance with legal obligations.

We share information with providers who help us run the platform, including cloud hosting and database services, authentication services, email delivery providers and error/uptime monitoring. They process information on our instructions. We also share information with other members as described in this policy (listings, RFQs and messages), and with authorities or advisers where legally required.

We do not sell personal information.

Some emails are necessary to operate your account and are not marketing. These include account approval and status, security and login notifications, RFQ and match notifications, quote requests, new message alerts, system notifications and important service announcements. You receive these while your account is active, regardless of your marketing preferences.

Marketing and platform-update emails are separate. You can opt in or withdraw at any time from your Marketing Preferences page, or by using the unsubscribe link in any marketing email — no login required. We keep a permanent do-not-contact record of unsubscribes so you are not accidentally re-added to a future marketing list.

ChipTrades is operated from the United Arab Emirates and uses service providers that may process information in other countries, including in the United States and the European Union. Where required, we put appropriate safeguards in place for such transfers, such as standard contractual clauses or an equivalent mechanism recognised by the relevant law.

We retain personal information for as long as reasonably necessary to provide the platform, maintain security, comply with legal obligations, resolve disputes and maintain appropriate business records. Retention periods vary depending on the type and purpose of the information.

Listings, RFQs, matching activity and message history are retained as platform trading records, in anonymised or aggregated form where appropriate. Do-not-contact/suppression records are retained indefinitely, because deleting them would risk contacting someone who has asked us not to.

We use access controls, row-level database security, encryption in transit, audited administrative access and least-privilege service credentials. No platform can be completely secure; keep your credentials confidential and notify us immediately of any suspected unauthorised access.

Depending on where you are located, you may have rights to access, correct, delete, restrict or object to our processing of your personal information, to data portability, to withdraw consent, and to opt out of marketing or the "sale"/"sharing" of personal information (we do neither). To exercise any right, contact sales@chiptrades.com. We may need to verify your identity, and some information must be retained where we have a legal or security reason to keep it.

Please contact us first so we can put things right. You may also have the right to complain to a data protection or privacy regulator in your country.

We may update this policy as the platform develops. Material changes will be notified in the platform or by email, and the version number above will be updated.